Ulster County, 3 towns sue 'paper terrorists'

Thursday

Apr 29, 2010 at 2:00 AMApr 29, 2010 at 8:43 AM

STONE RIDGE — Ulster County, three towns and a handful of public employees have brought a federal racketeering case against anti-government zealots who tried to extort more than $143 billion from them by filing phony liens and judgments, court papers said.

Adam Bosch

STONE RIDGE — Ulster County, three towns and a handful of public employees have brought a federal racketeering case against anti-government zealots who tried to extort more than $143 billion from them by filing phony liens and judgments, court papers said.

The suit accuses 51-year-old Richard Enrique Ulloa and five others of intimidating government officials by sending them fraudulent invoices totaling billions of dollars and filing liens against their personal property. Their scheme struck at Ulster County and the towns of Lloyd, Rosendale and Ulster.

"These are paper terrorists," said John W. Bailey, the Albany lawyer representing the governments and their employees. "This is not some collection of goofball misfits. The fact is they've clearly embarked on a path that's intended to create havoc and damage."

According to court papers, this is how Ulloa and his alleged co-conspirators intimidated the governments:

It started May 13, 2009, when a Rosendale cop issued two traffic tickets to Ulloa. Town Justice Robert Vosper sent him to jail for failing to present a valid driver's license.

Two days after his court appearance, Ulloa countered by sending a fake criminal complaint against Vosper to Town Hall. He also sent an invoice for $150 million. Three weeks later he sent an invoice for $550 million because his first notices weren't answered.

When four months passed without response, Ulloa filed Uniform Commercial Code paperwork in the state of Washington naming Vosper as a $165 million creditor. He also filed a federal lien on Vosper in the state of Georgia. Both liens on Vosper's private property and possessions were later transferred to New York.

That pattern repeated itself several times.

When Ulster County foreclosed on Ulloa's property in 2009, he filed a lien of $2.82 billion against the county. Ulloa also hit the Town of Ulster with $181 million in fake bills and liens for a driving-without-a-license ticket.

Nearly all Ulloa's papers were notarized by Marbletown Town Clerk Kathy Cairo-Davis and assessor aide Kathy Steinhilber, who are named as defendants in the racketeering suit. Cairo-Davis said her only responsibility as a notary was to validate the signature.

"I don't check the documents — I'm not supposed to," she said. "No town clerk would get involved in something like this. Not a sane one."

Others defendants — Sara Ulloa, Jeffrey-Charles Burnfeindt, Ed-George Parenteau and Raymond Tompkins — filed bills and liens in Lloyd after Parenteau illegally drove a rental van and Burnfeindt was arrested on a bench warrant, according to the government.

The papers harmed the credit ratings of some governments and workers and clogged judicial proceedings, the suit said.

Richard Ulloa, who made $110,000 as a senior engineer at IBM in 2006, recently told a federal tax judge he didn't pay his taxes because he "couldn't say" if he was paid as an employee, according to tax-court transcripts.

Ulloa's driveway in Stone Ridge is decorated with signs that warn trespassers will be shot. A "Don't Tread on Me" flag flies in his front yard. And when he's asked about the liens, he says they're "100 percent valid."

"There's only two law books that exist," Ulloa says, "The Uniform Commercial Code and the Bible."